Public Bill Committee

[Nadine Dorries in the Chair]

Nadine Dorries: Before we begin, can I make the usual announcements? If you would like to take your jackets off, please do, and switch off your mobile phones. The Minister, sadly, much to her stress, is stuck on a train, which I believe has broken down. She may run through the door in a second. For the record, she is not here as a result of something that is not her fault. As the Committee cannot consider the clauses of the Bill until the House has agreed a money resolution I call Afzhal Khan to move the Adjournment motion.

Afzal Khan: I beg to move, That the Committee do now adjourn.

David Linden: In a week in which there has been nothing normal in Parliament, it is good to meet here on Wednesday morning. It seems that this place is erupting, and that there are only two things we can count on in life: this Committee will meet, and the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) will probably intervene in the Adjournment debate in the House tonight. It is great to be here, and I look forward to next week’s sitting.

Mark Harper: I will not delay the Committee for long. I wish to put on the record the fact that I am sorry that I could not attend last week. I was heartened to note, however, that the hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton made the point that I would have made if I had been here. I am grateful to him and thank him for enabling me to be present in spirit, if not in the flesh.

Question put and agreed to.

Adjourned accordingly till Wednesday 18 July at Ten o’clock.